


Mia's

by killkissbe



Category: La La Land (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, References to Depression, this is not fix-it fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 19:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10997514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killkissbe/pseuds/killkissbe
Summary: She really was something else. He's still getting used to the past tense.





	Mia's

_You could be happy; I hope you are._

_You made me happier than I'd been by far._

_([x](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toy1RwxTv1A))_

* * *

 

Mia falls into fame faster than they'd fallen in love. It's not surprising. There's always been that something about her, that spark, and Sebastian had seen it from the start. He'd been wrong about a lot of things, made more than his share of mistakes along the way, but he'd been right about her. 

She really was something else.

He's still getting used to the past tense.

 

* * *

 

Posters. Magazines. His fuckin' Facebook sidebar. He can't escape her.

It comes in waves.  He thinks he's getting used to it and then there's another interview, another film, one of those damn memes. And he'd laugh with the rest of the world if his didn't feel incomplete without her. 

But he's happy for her. He tells himself again and again. He's happy. She wanted this. They wanted this. He had his shot at his dream and she's finally making a name for herself in a city that loves to forget them. 

It's more than the city, too. The whole country falls for her. And it's not like he can blame them.

A million years ago at Christmastime, he'd been the idiot who pushed her away.

 

* * *

 

He gets asked about her, of course, because for a while he knew that semi-fame. He'd been the keyboardist that hid behind the dancers on stage, but People or whoever know him well enough that the fact he once dated The Mia Dolan is too good a scoop to pass up.

They offer him money for it, too, money he could put towards the club or even just the water stain he stares at on his ceiling every night.

But he says nothing to any of them and not just because he knows she'd do the same.

 

* * *

 

He plays at The Lighthouse Café some nights, the crowds a little less disappointing now that he's not _just_ a nobody, but a nobody who was once a _somebody_. They request songs from The Messengers and it would be an insult if it wasn't a considerable step up from I Ran.

God, if that song doesn't fuckin' haunt him.

One night he leaves and it's so dark the lights on the pier look like stars and he wonders what country Mia's in and whether she's awake or asleep and if she's awake, what the hell is she thinking and then he just really needs a drink.

 

* * *

 

His sister stays for Thanksgiving and for once, she doesn't ask him a million questions about his life and what he's doing with it. She doesn't ask where the stool went or why his piano doesn't look like it's been touched in months. She knows all the answers already; she always has.

 

* * *

 

They stop asking questions about their relationship sometime not long after it's reported that Mia's dating some guy, real handsome. Pictures of them are plastered all over every newsstand and sometimes Sebastian catches himself staring. Sometimes it's all so fuckin' surreal that he wonders if what they'd had had even been real, or if it had all been a part of some elaborate fantasy.

But when he starts to wonder that, he just finds himself drinking more.

 

* * *

 

He meets a guy at the Lighthouse who says something about wanting to bring back jazz to LA and Sebastian knows he should know better, but he's not so sure what he has to lose anymore. A few weeks later he's moving in his antiques and putting up posters. They name the drinks after famous musicians and he buys the most beautiful piano he's ever seen at auction. It's almost too beautiful to play but he finds himself at the bench, tinkering a few familiar notes.

In an all-but-empty room the sound echoes and his heart hurts.

This is what he's wanted his whole life. A place of his own. His own sound. A living monument to the greats that have come before him and the hope that one day, somehow, he'll join them.

But the sound echoes in the all-but-empty room and his heart hurts. Once upon a time, he'd had someone to share this with.

 

* * *

 

Somebody finds the design Mia had drawn up for _Seb's_ – he'd been the one to throw _Chicken on a Stick_ out the window right from the beginning – and asks if that's the plan for the name. He stares at the word long and hard. This is what he's wanted. A place of his own.

But he wouldn't have it without her. She'd been the spark. She'd made him feel like he was worth it.

 

* * *

 

Opening night, they even manage to summon up some press. Sebastian wears his nicest suit and tries not to tug on the tie too much in front of the cameras. There are people here who know him from before, he wants them to know who he is _now_.

"This, uh, this has been a dream of mine since.. well, since before I can remember. It took me a long while to figure out how to make that dream a reality and I... I wouldn't have figured it out without its namesake."

The sheet that's covering the fluorescent sign is dropped and Sebastian manages not to wince as the flashes go off.

"Welcome to _Mia's_. I hope this dream is the beginning of many others."

 

* * *

 

_More than anything I want to see you, girl,_

_Take a glorious bite out of the whole world._

 


End file.
